Nutritional supplements, which play important roles in preserving eye health, can be purchased “over-the-counter” (i.e., without requiring a prescription from a physician) and are usually taken in unit dosages. Nutritional supplements, which contain nutrients that occur naturally in a healthy diet, are very different from prescription drugs, which (in the United States) can be sold only by pharmacies that require a prescription from a doctor. “Nutrients” are compounds that are often found in a normal human diet and/or a healthy human body (this can include precursors, etc.), regardless of whether they are synthesized chemically, or extracted from natural sources. The term “nutrients” is generally intended to be distinct from pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, and other “xenobiotic” compounds that are not normally found in natural sources. “Unit dosage” forms comprise formulations designed to enable a user to know and control the quantity of a nutrient or nutritional supplement that is being ingested each day. Unit dosage formulations include, for example, tablets and capsules (which includes hybrid-type pills, such as coated tablets, “caplets”, etc.), powders or liquids that are accompanied by measuring and quantity instructions. However, the present invention can be useful if levels of a supplement exceed predetermined levels such that the nutritional supplement is a “prescribed” nutritional supplement.
One problem associated with nutritional supplements relates to whether they assist each individual in preventing eye disorders or helping to treat eye disorders. Another problem is that some individuals have the perception that their diet is “acceptable,” when, in fact, it is deficient in providing certain nutrients. As such, many individuals who may benefit from nutritional supplements are often reluctant to use nutritional supplements. As such, what is needed is a system and method that allows individuals to easily understand the beneficial effects that will occur if the patient takes the nutritional supplement for a short period of time, such as several weeks or several months (e.g., every 6 months).
Nutritional supplements can provide (i) health-sustaining benefits, when used as preventive (or prophylactic) agents by someone who is relatively healthy, and/or (ii) disease-treating benefits, when used as therapeutic (or treatment) agents by someone who is suffering from a known disorder (therapeutic use is often referred to also as drug use). The distinction between preventive use versus therapeutic use depends on the status of the person being treated, and that status often falls into an unknown, “early onset”, or other borderline or boundary area where the proper category is not always clear. It should also be recognized that preventive (prophylactic) use normally involves lower dosages, while therapeutic use usually involves higher dosages.
As discussed below, this invention relates to a computerized system that enables front-line eye-specialists to become actively involved in a nationwide and worldwide data-gathering system, that focuses upon (but is not limited to) measuring and analyzing macular pigment, which is important to preventing and treating a number of eye and vision diseases, including macular degeneration. As used herein, a “front-line eye specialist” includes any person (e.g., a heath care worker) who is trained and qualified to work with individuals to allow measurements to be taken of the patient's eyes via the devices listed below. The definition includes optometrists and other eye vision centers, that are often the first and, in many cases, the only eye care specialists that most people will ever see. Front-line eye specialists also include health-care workers who work in hospitals and nursing homes in which patients are treated. Ophthalmologists, who are highly-trained eye specialists, can also serve to provide “front line” eye care, and may be included as well.
As such, the role of front-line eye specialist in actually preventing eye diseases and blindness will become substantially greater because they will be in the ideal position to take the necessary “first steps” toward ensuring that their clients, customers, and patients begin receiving and taking suitable nutritional supplements to help those clients, customers, and patients preserve their eyes and vision, as soon as possible, to minimize the extent of early and potentially irreversible loss and damage.
With the foregoing as preface, the remainder of the description below focuses on a group of retinal diseases that are collectively referred to as “retinal degeneration” and the use of nutritional supplements (in particular, zeaxanthin and lutein) that will help prevent and treat patients with the retinal degeneration. Retinal degeneration includes macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
The Retina, the Macula, and Macular Degeneration:
The retina is the layer of nerve cells at the back of the eye, which convert light into nerve signals that are sent to the brain. In humans, and in other primates (but not in most other mammals, or other types of animals), the retina has a small yellowish area in the center of the field of vision. That yellowish area is called the “macula.” It provides fine-resolution vision in the center of the visual field, and it is essential to good vision. People who suffer from macular degeneration often lose the ability to read, recognize faces, drive, or walk safely on unfamiliar routes.
The surrounding portions of the retina can only provide coarse resolution. This physiological feature limits and controls the number of nerve signals that the brain must rapidly process, to form coherent rapid-response vision, and it also helps limit and control the huge number of rod and cone receptors that the eye must continually regenerate and recycle, every day. Many people do not realize the retina can provide only coarse resolution, outside of a limited central area, because the eyes and the brain have developed an extraordinary ability to synthesize coherent vision from a combination of fine and coarse resolution. During that type of vision synthesis, the eye muscles cause the eyes to flit back and forth over a larger field of vision, pausing at each location for just an instant while the eye quickly “grabs” a fine-resolution image of a limited area. This process occurs so rapidly that a person doesn't notice it happening, and doesn't pay attention to how a complete visual image and impression is being assembled and updated from combinations of fine and coarse resolution images.
However, the steps and components that are involved in how vision is created, not just by the eyes but by the brain as well, can be recognized, if someone pays particular attention to various aspects of it. As a simple demonstration, if someone focuses intently on a single word, on a printed page, it is effectively impossible for that person to read any words that are only an inch above or below the word that is being focused upon, at the center of the field of vision. Similarly, someone who begins to suffer from “macular degeneration” will be forced to realize how important fine resolution is, in human vision. That type of fine resolution is provided only by the macula, and the macula covers only the center portion of the field of vision.
There is also a peculiar anatomic structure in the retinas of humans, which points out the difference between fine resolution (provided by the macula) and coarse resolution (provided by the remainder of the retina). In humans, the blood vessels that serve the retina actually sit in front of the retina, where they can block and interfere with incoming light, before the light reaches the retina. This is counter-intuitive, and one should wonder why the retina evolved with a physical handicap that literally gets in the way of good, clear vision. The answer is, in those parts of the retina, only coarse vision is being created, and blood vessels positioned in front of the retina do not interfere with that type of coarse vision. By contrast, in the macular region in the center of the retina, the blood vessels are moved back, and positioned behind the layer of neurons with rod and cone receptors. This is consistent with the macula providing fine resolution vision, which would be blocked and hindered if the blood vessels were located in front of the neurons, in ways that would intercept and blocking portions of the incoming light.
“Retinal degeneration” is a descriptive term, which refers to and includes an entire class of eye diseases and disorders. It includes any progressive disorder or disease that causes the macula to gradually degenerate, to a point that substantially impairs or damages eyesight and vision. Several major categories of retinal degeneration are known. These include: (i) age-related macular degeneration, which gradually appears among some people over the age of about 65; (ii) diabetic retinopathy, in which problems with sugar and energy metabolism damage the entire retina, including the macula; (iii) eye diseases that affect the macula due to gene and/or enzyme defects, such as Stargardt's disease, Best's disease, Batten's disease, Sjogren-Larsson syndrome, and various other eye disorders that lead to gradual degeneration of the macula (and possibly other parts of the retina) over a span of time. That is not an exclusive list, and other subclasses and categories also are known. For example, age-related macular degeneration is subdivided into wet and dry forms, depending on whether abnormal and disruptive blood vessel growth is occurring in the structural layers behind the retina.
The causes and effects of macular degeneration, and efforts to prevent or treat it, are described in numerous books (e.g., “Macular Degeneration,” by Robert D'Amato et al (2000) and “Age-Related Macular Degeneration,” by Jennifer Lim (2002)), articles (“Age-Related Macular Degeneration” by Berger et al (1999)) and patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. Re. 38,009, which is assigned to ZeaVision LLC, and is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
In recent years, awareness has grown, among some researchers but not among the general public, of the roles that macular pigment plays, in the health and longevity of the macula. Therefore, the two carotenoid pigments that create and provide the macular pigment are discussed below.
The Macular Pigments: Zeaxanthin and Lutein:
The macula has a yellowish color because it contains unusually high concentrations of two specific pigments, called zeaxanthin and lutein. Both are carotenoids, similar to beta-carotene but with hydroxy groups coupled to their end rings (the presence of one or more oxygen atoms causes a carotenoid to be categorized as a “xanthophyll”, so zeaxanthin and lutein are sometimes referred to as xanthophylls). Both of those two carotenoids are known to be protective and beneficial, in human retinas, by mechanisms that include: (1) absorption of destructive ultraviolet photons; and (2) quenching of destructive radicals. Both of those mechanisms, and other potential protective mechanisms, are discussed below.
In addition to their involvement in the macula and macular degeneration, zeaxanthin and lutein also are present in other eye structures (including lenses), and undesirably low levels of those two carotenoids appear to be correlated with higher risks of disorders such as cataracts. Accordingly, although the discussion herein focuses on macular degeneration, it should be recognized that any comments herein about macular pigment levels also have varying degrees of relevance to some other eye disorders as well. Similarly, any comments herein about macular degeneration should be recognized as including disorders that are referred to by other names (such as diabetic retinopathy, Stargardt's disease, etc.), but that involve or lead to gradual deterioration of the macula.
The structures of zeaxanthin and lutein are shown in FIG. 1. They are very similar, and are isomers of each other, differing only in the placement of a double bond in one end ring, as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 1. In lutein, the ring with a “misplaced” double bond is called an “epsilon” ring. All of the other end rings shown in FIG. 1 have “beta” ring structures, which refers to the sequence of double bonds found in beta-carotene's two end rings.
However, that single minor structural difference, between zeaxanthin versus lutein, has profound effects on the traits, performance, and tissue concentrations of those two different molecules, in both plants and animals. Briefly, the lutein molecule has a bend where the epsilon ring joins the “straight chain” segment between the two end rings. That bend, near one end, allows lutein to fit properly into ring-shaped “light-harvesting” structures, in the chloroplasts of plant cells. Since light-harvesting (which is part of photosynthesis) is crucial in plants, lutein evolved as a major and dominant carotenoid, in essentially all plants.
By contrast, zeaxanthin does not have a bend at either end. Since it is relatively straight, it cannot fit properly into the circular light-harvesting structures that help carry out photosynthesis, in plants. Therefore, it evolved in plants in ways that led to a very different role in a day-night cycle, in which zeaxanthin and a similar carotenoid called violaxanthin are converted back and forth into each other. As a result, zeaxanthin does not accumulate in substantial quantities in most types of plants (although a few exceptions are known, such as corn and red peppers). Even in dark green plants, such as spinach or kale, lutein content is dozens or even hundreds of times greater than zeaxanthin content. On an aggregate basis, the total amount of zeaxanthin in typical diets in industrial nations is believed to be about 1% (or possibly even less) of the total lutein supply.
Another major difference between them is that lutein can be obtained in bulk, and at low cost, from the orange flowers of marigolds. Since that source is available and inexpensive, lutein from marigolds has been used for decades as a major coloring pigment, in poultry and farm-raised salmon. In poultry, lutein causes the skin and yolks to turn yellow, which becomes a deeper golden tint when a red pigment is also added. That golden tint is appealing to consumers; without it, chicken meat that is packaged and refrigerated for sale in a store tends to have a pale, bleached, pasty appearance, and does not look fresh or appealing. In contrast, no comparable supplies of zeaxanthin in bulk have been available, and the development and use of zeaxanthin lagged far behind lutein. It should be noted that the majority of currently available supplies of lutein contain relatively small quantities of zeaxanthin (e.g. about 5% or less). In fact, for a number of years, zeaxanthin was regarded by some lutein sellers in their sales materials, as merely an impurity in their lutein. The first large-scale commercial sales of concentrated zeaxanthin, for ingestion by humans, did not begin until 2002, when Roche Vitamins (subsequently purchased by DSM Chemicals) began selling a synthetic version, which was encapsulated and sold by various retailers, including ZeaVision LLC, the assignee herein. Ingestion of zeaxanthin by a human provides benefits to the macula.
Another important difference between zeaxanthin and lutein is that zeaxanthin has a longer and more protective “conjugated cloud” of electrons surrounding it, compared to lutein. When a series of carbon atoms are bonded to each other by alternating double and single bonds, the electrons become mobile, and are no longer affixed to specific bond locations. Those electrons form a flexible and movable electron “cloud”. This same type of cloud also appears in benzene rings and other “aromatic” organic compounds, and it is well-known to chemists.
That type of flexible and movable electron cloud is ideally suited for absorbing high-energy radiation (in the ultraviolet, near-ultraviolet, and deep blue part of the spectrum), without suffering damage or breakage of the molecule. In addition, a flexible and movable electron cloud is ideally suited for neutralizing and “quenching” oxygen radicals, which are aggressively unstable and destructive molecules, containing oxygen atoms having unpaired electrons. Oxidative radicals are important damaging agents in any cells and tissues that are being bombarded by high levels of UV radiation, since UV radiation often breaks bonds that involve oxygen atoms, in ways that create unpaired electrons where the broken bonds previously existed.
All carotenoids are assembled, in plants, from a 5-carbon precursor called isoprene, which has two double bonds separated by a single bond. As a result, all carotenoids have at least some sequence of alternating double and single bonds, leading to a conjugated electron cloud covering at least part of the carotenoid molecule. This is a basic and shared trait of all carotenoids, and it explains how carotenoids provide two crucial benefits (i.e., absorption of UV radiation, and quenching of destructive radicals) that are vital to plants, which must often sit in direct sunlight for hours each day.
However, different carotenoids have conjugated electron clouds that different lengths, and different potencies and protective traits. In particular, there is a crucial difference between the conjugated electron clouds of zeaxanthin, and lutein. As shown in FIG. 1, the placement of the double bonds in both of zeaxanthin's two end rings continues and extends the pattern of alternating double and single bonds, from the straight chain. This extends zeaxanthin's conjugated and protective electron cloud, out over a part of both of zeaxanthin's two end rings.
By contrast, as shown in FIG. 1, the position of the double bond in lutein's “epsilon” ring disrupts the alternating double/single bond sequence, established by the straight-chain portion of the molecule. This disrupts and terminates the conjugated electron cloud, and it prevents the protective, UV-absorbing, radical-quenching electron cloud from covering any part of lutein's epsilon end ring.
That structural difference in their end rings becomes highly important, because zeaxanthin and lutein are deposited into animal cells in ways that cause them to “span” or “straddle” the outer membranes of the cells. It causes zeaxanthin and lutein to be deposited into animal cell membranes in a way that places them perpendicular to the surfaces of the membrane that surrounds and encloses a cell.
That “spanning” or “straddling” orientation, across the thickness of the outer membrane of an animal cell, arises from the presence of the two “hydrophilic” (water-seeking) hydroxy groups on the end rings of those two carotenoids. On the other hand, Beta-carotene has no hydroxy groups on either end ring. Therefore, Beta-carotene settles into the oily interior layer of a cell membrane, effectively hidden from the watery liquids that are both inside and outside of the cell. Beta-carotene eventually is broken in half, by enzymes, to release two molecules of retinol, which is Vitamin A. Nearly all carotenoids that are important in animal health and physiology are derived from beta-carotene. It is not just a coincidence that those carotenoids happen to have molecular lengths that allow them to extend a portion of both end rings, slightly beyond the surface of an animal cell membrane.
The “membrane-spanning” orientation of zeaxanthin or lutein, in animal cells, causes portions of the end rings of both molecules to be exposed on the inner and outer surfaces of an animal cell membrane. One end ring will be exposed to blood, lymph, and other “extracellular” fluids outside of the cell. The other end ring will be exposed to the watery liquid inside the cell (often called the cytoplasm or cytosol).
The “membrane-spanning” positioning of zeaxanthin, in an animal cell membrane, allows it to provide a protective electron cloud that extends outward from both the inner and outer surfaces of an animal cell membrane. On that subject, it should also be noted that zeaxanthin is completely symmetric, end-to-end. Therefore, it makes no difference which end ring of zeaxanthin is “grabbed” by an enzyme that is preparing to insert the zeaxanthin molecule into an animal cell membrane.
By contrast, since lutein has no protective electron cloud over one of its two end rings, it cannot provide a protective electron cloud extending from one of the two sides of an animal cell membrane. Furthermore, lutein is not symmetric, end-to-end, since its two end rings are different.
It is not fully known, at a molecular level, how lutein's lack of symmetry, and lack of a protective conjugated electron cloud over one end ring, affect its deposition in cells in the human macula. For example, it is not known whether the protective beta rings at one end of lutein are consistently or predominantly placed on the either the external or internal surfaces of cell membranes. In addition, it is not known whether lutein is consistently deposited, into human cell membranes, in a membrane-spanning orientation.
However, other aspects of zeaxanthin and lutein content and deposition in blood, and in the macular regions of human retinas, are well-known. Despite the rarity of zeaxanthin in food sources (as mentioned above, zeaxanthin content in typical diets is believed to be less than about 1% of the lutein supply), zeaxanthin concentrations in human blood average about 20% of lutein levels. This clearly indicates that the human body does something that indicates a selective preference for zeaxanthin, over lutein.
Even more revealingly, zeaxanthin is even more concentrated in the crucially important center of the human macula, which provides fine-resolution vision in humans. In the crucially important center of a healthy human macula, zeaxanthin is present at levels that average more than twice the concentrations of lutein. By contrast, lutein is present in higher levels around the less-important periphery of the macula. While the mechanisms which create that pattern of deposition are not fully understood, it recently has been reported that certain enzymes that appear to be involved will clearly bind to zeaxanthin with relatively high affinity under in vitro conditions; however, those same enzymes will not bind to lutein with any substantial affinity (Bhosale et al 2004).
Accordingly, these differences in how zeaxanthin and lutein are deposited in the macula provide strong evidence that the macula wants and needs zeaxanthin, more than lutein. The patterns of deposition, and the known structural and electron cloud differences, suggest and indicate that the macula wants and needs zeaxanthin, and it uses lutein only if and when it cannot get enough zeaxanthin.
This belief is also supported by another important finding. The macula may attempt to convert lutein into zeaxanthin. However, the conversion process cannot convert lutein into the normal stereoisomer of zeaxanthin found in plants and in the diet (the 3R,3′R stereoisomer). Instead, it converts lutein into a different stereoisomer that has never been found in any food sources or mammalian blood. That non-dietary isomer has one end ring with the conventional “R” configuration; however, the second end ring has an unnatural “S” configuration that is never found in the normal diet. That S—R isomer (and R—S isomer) is called meso-zeaxanthin, which is also shown in FIG. 1. It is included herein as a subset of zeaxanthin, and the machines and methods disclosed herein can be used, if desired to evaluate any benefits it may offer, in human use, although the preference is for the naturally occurring isomer of zeaxanthin.
Consequently, while lutein may have benefits, a growing body of knowledge and evidence indicates that zeaxanthin is the ideal carotenoid for helping prevent and treat the class of eye diseases that fall into the category of macular degeneration.
In light of the previous information concerning the macula and the macular pigments, this invention creates a computerized network and machines that accomplish one or more of the following functions:
(i) enable all practicing front-line specialists, such as optometrists, to rapidly diagnose the main etiologic factor that appears to cause most cases of macular degeneration (i.e., a vitamin deficiency involving low levels of the protective carotenoid, zeaxanthin), even at the very earliest stages of the disorder, which can be years before the noticeable symptoms of failing eyesight begin to trouble a patient;
(ii) provide front-line specialists with better, more convenient and affordable tools for measuring and diagnosing macular pigment levels in patients;
(iii) establish an improved but widespread and proper standard of care in ways that will greatly reduce the actual rates and risks of blindness caused by AMD;
(iv) rapidly provide much better, much more useful, and much less costly data for analysis;
(v) enable numerous front-line specialist to begin contributing useful data involving small numbers of patients from each practice, in a way that rapidly amounts to large numbers of patients in the aggregate, comparing various eye supplements (e.g., zeaxanthin v. lutein v. zeaxanthin-lutein mixtures) for actual efficacy in either preventing or treating macular degeneration;
(vi) creating a computerized network that has data-gathering and data-processing capability, which can continuously and rapidly compile, process, digest, and report large numbers of data concerning macular degeneration and efforts to treat or prevent macular degeneration, including data that will be generated in one or more multi-site, nationwide, and/or worldwide meta-trials involving intervention studies, including but not limited to intervention studies that include administration of zeaxanthin, lutein, or zeaxanthin-lutein mixtures (either with or without additional nutrient supplements, drug treatments, etc.) to people who are suffering from, or who are at elevated risk of, macular degeneration.
The invention also relates to a business method that utilizes a combination of computers, computer software, and computerized peripheral devices to enable better and more efficient prevention of vision loss and blindness, by means of low-cost systems in front-line specialists' offices. With relatively low training and operating requirements, these distributed computerized systems will be designed to provide two major sets of benefits. First, when dealing with specific patients, this system will enable front-line specialists to gather useful data concerning macular pigment levels, in any customer or patient, and rapidly provide, to any patient in need of such treatment, a nutritional supplement that can raise his or her macular pigment levels. Second, and without interfering with the goal of serving individual patients, this computerized business process described above will also enable the gathering and analysis of highly useful statistical data from thousands of patients by means of a “meta-trial” approach, in which each of hundreds or thousands of participating front-line specialists will contribute de-identified data from dozens of patents, rapidly leading to very large populations and reliable statistical analyses. This type of meta-trial testing using the computerized system disclosed herein can provide, for example, rapid and reliable data from human trials that will enable direct comparison of the actual contributions and benefits of zeaxanthin supplements, lutein supplements, or zeaxanthin-plus-lutein mixtures. As another example, this type of meta-trial testing using the computerized system disclosed herein can enable the testing and evaluation of multiple differing combinations of various known candidate active ocular agents, in ways that will help researchers develop a better understanding of which combinations of such agents will provide the most benefits, either for all patients, or for specific categories of patients.
Devices exist that measure a patient's macular pigment density. And, at least one attempt has been made to allow patients to test their macular pigment density and send the test information to a remote site, as described in “Validated Vision Test Battery for the Home PC” by Dagnelie et al (2002). However, the reliance on the video display of a home personal computer presents a high risk of error, especially when trying to correlate results for individuals having substantially different types of video displays. Further, there was no attempt to modulate or alter recommended nutritional supplements based on the data being collected by within a system. Hence, as described below, the present invention presents numerous substantial improvements to any such home PC-based type of system.
Large, cumbersome, and expensive multi-year government-run studies (such as the AREDS-1 trial done in the 1990's and reported over the 2001-2005 period, and the proposed AREDS-2 trial which has not even started yet, despite years of planning) take many years (perhaps a decade) to generate useful results. Even more importantly, despite having years to do their work and budgets of tens of millions of dollars for each study, they have been criticized as being not being able to organize and run enough different treatment arms to adequately determine or evaluate the best actual treatments.
The invention will become more apparent through the following summary, drawings, and description.